A report from 2009, from KnowledgeWorks called 2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning caught my attention. It identifies six major drivers of change that might unleash a wild world of learning quite unlike any system of schooling we’ve ever experienced. What I’m finding is that it’s increasingly a story-driven game that places students at the center of their learning experience, much like an MMORPG. In any case, the singularity is one narrative I imagine will drastically alter what it means to be a student interfacing with a world undergoing ecological and economic shifts.

In the section called Altered Bodies we’re reminded that neuroscientists have begun to design neuro-enhancements that might soon provide “customized learning experiences” that push the boundaries of ethics and cognitive rights. Learners are forecast to have “more and more options for modifying their minds and bodies in support of peak performance even as they navigate increasing levels of bio-distress.” I’m reminded of what H.G. Wells would say is urgently needed to prevent our own extinction, “the evolution of a new more powerful type of man.”

Noubel describes a holoptical space that is attained through an “artificially reconstituted reality involving modeled representations of the Whole.” Participants who engage this Whole are said to be experiencing “Holopticism” which allows them to adjust actions and coordinate. Each user is provided “artificially synthesized information” which lends a “point of view” and fits their situation. He suggests there is a feedback loop that “works like a mirror between the individual level and the collective one.”

Noubel further clarifies the state of Holopticism:

“Holopticism is a natural quality of original collective intelligence (OCI). OCI is possible only in holoptical environments, in other words in physical spaces in which our natural senses can access the totality of what happens.”

He envisions that Holoptical communities will evolve toward “self-reflexion, self-actualization, higher consciousness and a high capacity to cohere in the being and the doing.” He mentions their potential to become a global wisdom driven organizations.

Paul Sloane suggests we “destroy the hierarchy altogether” because people at the lower levels fear their great ideas will disrespect or challenge others up the command chain. As opposed to hierarchy, he advocates fluid, adaptable networks in which people coalesce into teams to play their roles and accomplish certain tasks.

The term stigmergy was first coined by Pierre-Paul Grasse in the 1950s during his his research on termites. He found that a highly complex nest of termites simply self-organises “due to the collective input of large numbers of individual termites performing extraordinarily simple actions in response to their local environment.”

Stigmergy manifests itself in the termite mound by the fact that the individual labour of each construction worker stimulates and guides the work of its neighbour.[1]

Communication is understood as providing the “cognitive context and situation awareness” necessary to collaborate. A strong focus on “process” is said to overlook the “structural context” within collaborative environments, which are just as important.

Process is just one structural context within a broader collaborative environment.

An article in EContent Magazine describes of a “proverbial fire hose” that endlessly supplies “junk” data that must be sifted through to discover right, targeted information and relevant intelligence. A report from Basex Research Group is cited, indicating “information overload” is responsible for draining 28% of worker’s time, resulting in an annual productivity loss of “nearly $997 billion”.

We need the capacity to digest and retrieve all this information and we cannot do it alone. It would be useful if the intelligence infrastructure were designed as a game that included “enterprise-ready content curation tools” and machine algorithms that would ensure players effectively “share, collaborate and act upon” gathered intelligence in real-time.

Even if you feel like you’re on top of all your content, chances are that you’ve missed some vital information nuggets. Drinking in all the data from the proverbial fire hose is simply no longer an effective way to consume content.

A recent report from Basex Research Group quantifies this wasted time by estimating that workers lose 28% of their time to information overload. That amounts to nearly $997 billion in annual lost productivity for companies.

CIOs and CTOs are increasingly investigating new process and technology solutions that can mitigate the rising cost and productivity losses associated with data deluge.

It’s not just about the volume of information. It’s about finding the right, targeted information in a sea of “junk” data.

Businesses have just started to realize the importance and benefits of aggregating relevant intelligence.

The next step will be to then offer collaboration capabilities on top of content, which enable users to effectively share, collaborate and act upon the discovered intelligence in real-time.

Content curation, through both machine algorithms and human intervention, will become a major integrated part of the enterprise productivity and intelligence infrastructure.